The golden stranger
by Smiling Eyes
Summary: She was locked in a tower of bronze by her own father. The reason: To prevent a heralded child to be born. But those imprisoning her hadn't counted on the gods. This is about Danae, the mother of Perseus, the Greek hero who killed the Medusa. She tells he
1. Part 1 Prisoner

_She was locked in a tower of bronze by her own father. The reason: To prevent a heralded child to be born. But those imprisoning her hadn't counted on the gods. This is about Danae, the mother of Perseus, the Greek hero who killed the Medusa. She tells her own story. It's in two parts._ **

* * *

****The golden stranger  
(Danae's story)**

Part 1 - Prisoner

My father, the king of Argos, had gone mad. Totally and completely mad, that was the only way to explain what had happened, what he had done to me. Because he had always loved me, he had always called me his little princess and played with me or boasted about my beauty among his friends. Up until these horrible events. First the wild boar that killed my beloved big brother during a hunt and not long after that mother had died too, from a strange decease which made her cough up her own blood.

Loosing two of his loved ones in shorter time than half a year must have driven father insane. One might think that such disasters would have brought us closer to each other, and first it did. But then father had started to believe my child would kill him. A child not even born. So he locked me up in this terrible and desolate place where no man would be able to see me or talk to me or give me a child. A tower of bronze built upon a sole hill outside the city with no one but my own thoughts as company and no visitors save from the old woman who brings me food three times a day, fresh water for cleaning myself and takes away my dirty laundry. She doesn't speak our language so I can not even talk to her.

Ink and papers is given to me so I can at least write down my thoughts, my dreams, my despair. I have decided to do that to keep my sanity. If I'm gonna grow old and grey here I'll do it with my wits kept. Hopefully one day when age claims my father someone will let me out, so I can at least live my last years in freedom, once more walk in a garden, smell the flowers and watch the birds bath in the puddles after the rain.

Eight long months have I spent here, I keep track by counting the times the foreign maid collects my laundry, once a week she does that. I watch the skies from the little window in the ceiling. When I came here it was winter and snow covered it from time to time. Then spring arrived and with it bluer skies or the soft drumming of rain. With summer came the swallows and the nightingale. The nightingale became my friend for some short weeks, he used to sit outside the window and sing so beautiful.

I talked to him, asked him about the world outside, how my father was doing - because I still loved him in spite, and if the big ships from across the sea had arrived in the harbour. The ships with spices and silk and tanned, strong men speaking foreign languages. Handsome men who my friends and I had used to spy on when we went down to the harbour in a happier life now lost. I wondered about my friends, if they were missing me. If Timandra had married the captain of the guards, how Ellila's child was doing and if Savira was still into writing poetry.

Not long after the nightingale left autumn had arrived and with it fierce thunderstorms and showers of rain. Then, one night came the silver-white eagle. I had never seen a bird like that, so strong and powerful. The eagle sat down by the window and peaked inside my prison, watching me with strangely intelligent eyes.

- Hi, I had said, sitting on my bed. The bird nodded like it had understood me and then it spread its large white wings and took off in the air. Three times it circled the sky, riding a warm current before it disappeared. I never saw it again.

Now it was night, a moonless dark night, with millions of stars in the sky. I was lying on my bed, waiting for sleep to come and watching the stars as so many nights before. But somehow this autumn night felt different. There was something in the air, an - expectation. I don't know how else to describe it, but it felt like something was gonna happen.

Was it imagination or were the stars moving? Swirling, dancing, spinning in the air. Congealing? Shining brighter than ever before as they formed into something - a human being? A man leaping through the sky just like that eagle had done. I stared at him for a long time, this wonderful being.  
- Come here! I whispered. Please, please come here! He might not have heard, in a whiff he was gone, and the stars looked normal like nothing strange had ever happened. Certain it had been a dream I rolled over, closed my eyes and fell asleep.

But next night he came back, this golden man, and he defied gravity when he danced so agilely across the sky. Once again I called out to him in a whisper:  
- Come here! This time he seemed to have heard, because he stopped in the air, tilted his head like he was listening.  
- Please, come here! I rose, stood up on top of my bed, almost reaching the glass of the window with my slender hand while I called out to the golden man once again.

He dived until his head was in level with my window, then he peered inside, smiling. He was the most beautiful being I had never seen, and I was smiling back at him, trying once more to reach the glass with my hand, trying to touch him.

And then the stranger reached out for me, and somehow his glittering hand went right through the glass, touching me. It didn't feel like a human hand at all, it held a tingling, warm sensation, it held compassion and kindness.  
- Who are you? I asked.  
- A friend, his voice spoken right into my mind.  
- Have you come to help me?  
- Do not worry, sweetheart, you will be out of here before the next summer solstice.

His human form disappeared in a golden cloud of sparkling stars, and my heart skipped a beat, because I thought he was leaving me. What he did instead was the very opposite, the glittering cloud swept in through the window like the glass was gone, and the next moment it took the shape of a man instead. A man sitting beside me on my bed.

The next thing happening was even more wonderful, because he stopped being a cloud and turned into a normal human. As normal as you might call the most handsome man I had ever seen. He left even the young, proud athletes pale with his wiry, strong and lithe body, long blond hair and enchanting smile. But most special of all were his glittering eyes. Blue like heaven, sparkling like sapphires and holding intelligence, wisdom, humour and good-hearted charm.

I wanted to ask this stranger a million things, but my brain had stopped working. The only thing that came out of my mouth was a stupid attempt at welcoming him.  
- Thank you, he smiled, melting my heart.  
- Stranger, friend, why have you come?  
- Because I think it is a terrible waste that such a beautiful, kind and intelligent girl should spend her days alone in a castle of bronze. I can not help you out at the moment, but I'm working on it. Meanwhile I guess I just have to keep you company. Do you like peaches?  
- Peaches? I love them! Why?  
- I brought some.

From what seemed out of nowhere the stranger brought some fruit and we ate them, while he told that his friend the Silver Eagle has seen me in the tower and told him about me. He had spent some time learning about my faith, and now he was trying to come up with a way of saving me.  
- But this means I have to take you somewhere else. Somewhere safe. Somewhere were you can find people to trust, and who won't harm you. I can't just let you out, because your father would probably kill you as soon as I'm gone.

- Who are you, I asked again. Where do you come from?  
- I'm a friend, that's all you need to know at the moment. And I come from far away. You know the sailors in the harbour?  
- Yes.  
- I come from a place ten times as far from here as their dwellings.  
- From the stars?  
- In a way, yes.  
- Then, since you don't wanna say your name, I guess I'll call you Starman.

The stranger laughed, it was the most wonderful sound I had heard in a long time.  
- That's very fitting. But I promise you, in time you will learn my real name, Danae.  
- But you know mine.  
- As I said, I have done some researches. Now I have to go, there are more people out there in need of me. But don't despair, little Danae. I'll be back tomorrow night.

With those words the stranger leaned over and kissed me on the forehead. The next moment he was gone, only the taste of peaches upon my lips revealing that his visit had been more than just a dream.

The next day was probably the longest one since my first days in this prison. Over the time I had developed some kind of routine here. I rise with the sun, and wash my face, hair and upper body, do some gymnastics to keep my body fit, and am done in time for breakfast. After eating I braid my hair, do some writing, put down which day it is and what the weather is like outside, if it's hot or cold in my dwelling and if there's any birds in the sky. Then comes lunch and after that I do some more exercising, first high jumps and kicks and boxing until I'm sweating and then slow movements, concentrating on my breathing.

I wash off the sweat, take a short nap and then I spend the rest of the time until dinner writing or reading from my earlier writings. I'm writing fairytales; stories about kings and queens, heroes and monsters, like if I'm really going to have a child on my own someday, a child to read for. I don't know why I do these things, probably it's just a way for me to daydream, to escape my prison if only in my mind. After dinner I read or write until sunset and then I go to sleep.

But this day the only thing I could think of was the stranger, the golden man. Starman. Longing for night to fall, hoping that he would keep his words and come back to me. Fearing that he would not, that he had been nothing but a dream or an hallucination.

Starman did come back. Once again he was there, like a shower of gold passing through the glass and then turning into his handsome self and sitting down upon my bed. This time he had brought more fruit; strawberries, grapes and cherries to go with the peaches. Wonder where he found them this time of year. He also brought some books for me to read.

Then we talked. He told me stories about faraway places he had visited and strange creatures he had seen. Big, gray beings called elephants with long long snakes for noses, from which they could spray water upon themselves. Giraffes with incredible long necks so they could grace from treetops and whales, creatures big as houses that lived in the depth of the endless seas.  
- Have you seen dragons?  
- Not in many many years. I think they are extinct, Starman told.

He stayed a bit longer that night, and then he came back the next night and the next. And we talked and talked Starman and I, he told of his many journeys, of heroes and heroines and of real monsters, the few that still existed, like the fearsome Medusa who lived with her equally fearsome sisters on an island by the end of the Earth.

On the seventh night I asked him something that have been on my mind for a while.  
- Are you really one of the gods?  
- Perhaps. Does it matter to you?  
- No... I mean, yes, because if you were, I would never be able to...  
- To what?  
- I don't know. Keep you as a friend I guess.  
- You can still do that. When you're out of here I won't be able to visit you every night, but you can still whisper my name in the wind and I will hear you and answer. The wind will carry my words back to you.

Hearing that I started to cry.  
- I don't wanna lose you. I'd rather stay here the rest of my life if I can have you visiting me like this every night.  
- That is not possible my dear, I am to get you out and you will have your life back. My visits are only sad excuses for real love from one of your own kind.  
- No, they are not. Please, don't leave me.

Starman held me close. Slowly he whispered my name, toyed with strands of my dark hair, promising me it was gonna be al right.

- You will know life again, Danae. You will know laughter and friendship. You will feel the sun upon your beautiful face. You will eat and drink when you feel hunger and thirst and you will swim in the ocean and collect sea-shells for necklaces like you used to do as a child.  
- But I wanna be with you.  
- No, that is not possible. I am from - far away, as I told you. I can only visit you for a short time. A time to be used wisely. To help you regain your courage and to help you out. Now, stop crying, little one! Tomorrow night I will bring you something special, since it is your birthday.

My birthday! I had almost forgot about that, now I had been in the tower for almost nine months. And my mother had been dead for a year.

Starman stayed until I fell asleep that night, and the next night he brought me orange juice and honey-bread. We ate and drank and he joked about some stupid people up north and I laughed so much I had hard to finish my drink. Then he brought me something more. He brought me passion. Love.

After finishing eating Starman didn't talk to me like he used to, instead he held me close and started to kiss me, slowly and tender. First I thought of hesitating, but then I thought - what the - I was probably never gonna taste kisses like this anymore. I could as well have Starman kissing me as no-one. I started to kiss back and Starman's kisses became hotter, more passionate. He kissed me on my neck and further down.

Somehow I found myself naked, when he tenderly laid me down on my back and started to use his lips and tongue upon my breasts, biting gently. When he slowly touched the inside of my tights with his soft hands, I opened up, breathing irregular, eyes unfocused. Starman leaned down, kissed me on my secret place, lifted his head and met my looks.  
- You're beautiful my love, he said. You're a treasure, and treasures ought not to be kept in vaults, they should be out glittering in the sun.

Next thing he used his tongue at a place of pleasure I didn't know I had, triggered sensations I have been unable to even imagine earlier. Then he rose, and I saw his manhood in the pale moonlight, it was magnificent. Just a second or two I saw it before he covered me with his viril body and entered inside of my willing cavities. I had been a virgin until now, and yet I felt that this was special, unique. I was making love to a god. I came at those thoughts as well as at the physical sensations erupting inside of me.

When it was over, Starman laid down beside me, held me close, caressed me and whispered wonderful things in my ears. Resting like that I fell asleep, the warmth of his arms and the mellow of his voice lulling me to sweet dreams.

In the morning he was gone, and he stayed gone. I waited in vain for him that night, and when he didn't show up I cried myself to sleep. Had I scared him off somehow? Or had he just wanted to sleep with me, and left me when he had satisfied himself? Was I ever gonna see him again? Or was I gonna rot in this damned tower with those wonderful eight nights as the only joy to remember?

No, Starman came back five nights later, saying he was sorry, but important business had kept him away. We made love again, and it was as passionate and wonderful as the first time, the only difference that he took farewell when I was still awake.  
- The stars are unruly at the moment, he told me. I will not be able to visit you as frequently as before, but I will keep my promise. Before the next summer solstice you will be out. And now I think I know a place where to bring you. I just have to perform some last research.

I took his hand.  
- I love you my magic friend. Whatever happens, I will never forget you or what you have given to me.  
- Of that I am certain. Now good night my little Danae.

Winter came and with it my dwelling went cold. In the mornings there was a cover of ice upon my water basin. I made fires in the stove, but they didn't warm much, when the embers had died my room was cold again. Once more it was Starman who helped me, he brought me a gown which felt like the softest silk, but warmed like thick fur. He also gave me gloves, socks and a blanket of the same material. I kept these things well hidden away from the maid and washed them myself in the basin.

But my ordeal was far from over, I started to feel sick in the mornings, lost my appetite for breakfast, instead I was heaving and retching in the waste hole behind the wall by the stairs. It couldn't be the food, it was as fresh as ever. It couldn't be the cold, I had never heard of people throwing up out of being frozen. It could only be... when was the last time I had had my bleeding? I went through my papers. There it was, the day after the visit of the Silver Eagle. Was I...?


	2. Part 2 Refugee

**The golden stranger  
(Danae's story)**

**Part 2 - refugee**

Now I know what despair feels like. Now I know what fear is all about. Back in the bronze prison I had often wished I was dead. Now I didn't want anything more dearly than to stay alive. To survive together with my little son. But we were domed, I was certain of that. Soon soon, this leaking vessel was gonna sink beneath the crashing waves and take me and my innocent little child to an early death.

When the maid had found out that I was pregnant it didn't take long until my father learned, and he had arrived at my prison, starting to question me. No "hello" no "I'm sorry" or any expression of care. Just this interrogation about who the father was. I told him it was a god, he started beating me up, accusing me of lying and of blasphemy. He beat and kicked me in the ribs and finally several times in the stomach, left me crying and bleeding on the floor. At that moment I was certain I was loosing the baby. That Starman's child was gonna die, the very first day I had felt it moving inside of me.

But the little one survived. After a while I had managed to drag my battered body to the bed and lie down there instead. There I had felt the child inside me once more. A soft move, almost like a caress. Like the child was telling me "mama, it's gonna be al right, I am fine".

Later I learned that dad had had the guards outside my tower killed, he believed one of them had entered my prison and made me pregnant. I felt so sorry for these men, they had been innocent.

Three weeks before the summer solstice I had given birth to the most wonderful little boy I had ever seen. Alone I had had him in my dwelling. I felt so happy when I held him and yet so sad because there was no-one to show him to, no one to share him with. Starman had stopped visiting me months ago, he had not even been around when I thought I was gonna lose my son. And then, when I realised he was not gonna come for me and the baby, I felt terrified. I was sure dad was gonna take away and kill my son as soon as he learned about him being born.

Instead he had me dragged out of my prison; for the first time in more than a year I was breathing fresh, salty air, felt warm summer rain upon my face. But I was too busy desperately holding on to my son to be able to notice anything around me. Something prevented father from killing us, I thought it was more the fear of being punished for kinsmurder than a rare pang of compassion. They say that evil demons called the furies are following those who murder their family until they go mad and take their own lives. Maybe that was what scared my superstitious father.

When he had us brought down to the harbour I soon found out what he had planned. We were thrown down in a little boat - more of a box to be true, and then carpenters put a wooden lid on top, nailing it in place. I begged and cried, asked them to have mercy, to spare us, to let me take my child and run away instead. But no one was listening, probably because dad's guards stood there watching over the horror. The boat became a coffin and the tide brought us out in the sea and to a certain death.

- Poor little love, I whispered to my son. I didn't even get the chance to name you properly and there's no father around to claim you. But I'm gonna call you Perseus, that was a name I came up with in my prison. It sounds like the name of a hero, the name of someone strong and brave. And in my little world you became a hero. My last chance to give love in this world.

The sea had became unruly, heavy waves were tossing the little vessel around like a toy, having my head and various body parts banging against the wooden planks. I tried with all my might to save my little terrified Perseus from getting hit too, protecting him with my body. At the same time it felt so pointless, we were both gonna die. We were both gonna go under here far far away from anything worth calling home, far far away from safety and love. Soon, I understood, we were gonna enter down in Hades, and we didn't even have any coins for Charon's ferry. Perhaps my golden necklace would do, or else Perseus and I were gonna end up haunting the wrong side of Styx for eternity and eternity.

The next wave was bigger then ever and my head smashed into the creaking ceiling of our confinement, flashes of light in front of my eyes. Then we fell down in an unfathomable void, my inner organs loosing their places in the fall. Perseus was crying like mad now, utterly terrified. And in a last attempt at doing anything I called out:  
- Starman, Starman where are you? If you ever did care about me, if you ever do care about your son, please please help us!

The next moment the little boat crashed down in water again, almost sinking. But instead of being drowned by the next wave it - stopped. Like the sea suddenly had become calm. Surprised Perseus stopped screaming and I rose, hitting my head once again. This time the planks creaked and then gave way. The wind took them and whipped them off like they were dropped seagull feathers.

In consternation I looked around. The sea had turned completely calm, changed from a wild and stormy chaos to an endless black marble floor. Above us stars were shining, the Milky Way like a ribbon across the sky. A thin waxing moon hung by the horizon and it was so quiet so quiet.

The next thing I noted was something moving among the waves. Two - no several fins closing in upon us. Sharks! My heart started beating fast again. No, suddenly one of the animals jumped up in the air - a dolphin. Two more followed, whistling at us like they wanted to say "Hi" and check out that we were fine. Was this Starman's doing?

The dolphins followed us through the night, and their presence made me feel so safe I even fell asleep with my little boy in my arms. I slept and dreamt and in my dream Starman, my divine lover, was with me again and I felt his kiss upon my lips. I heard him whisper in my ear to not worry and that he was watching over us, caring for us. And that he was so proud of his beautiful son.  
- You are going home now, Danae. I am finally taking you to a place you can call home.

I woke up at dawn, I hadn't seen a sunrise in ages, and its beauty took my breath away. The goddess Eos had painted the sky in pale blue, the clouds in pink and purple, all in honour of her big brother Helios the sun, who rose majestically out of the waves, spreading his warming rays over the world and probably watching his own splendour in the reflection from the calm sea. The dolphins were still accompanying us, and they too hailed the sun with high-pitched whistles.

Perseus woke up by the sound and I started breast-feeding him. And for the first time in ages I felt hope inside my heart on this beautiful morning. The dolphins soon left us though, one last whistle which sounded oddly much like "good bye". Next time silence was broken it was by a human voice. Behind me I heard someone calling:  
- Ahoy! Little boat Ahoy!

I turned; a fishing boat was coming fast upon us, its big sail having caught the first breeze of the morning. A curious face peaked over the rail. I rose my arm, careful to not tip over our little vessel.  
- Mayday, mayday! I cried. Help us please!

In response the fishermen turned their boat, bringing it close to us, a ladder falling down from the rail. The man I had first seen, a sturdy sailor with curly salt-and-pepper hair and beard, called out once again:  
- Ma'am? Are you shipwrecked or what?  
- Long story, I answered him. Now, please help me and my son.

- I'm Dichtus, the fisherman told as soon as my son and I were safely aboard. And you are?  
- Danae.  
- Of what ship?  
- No ship, we are refugees. As I said it's a long story.  
- Well, we have a long sail home too, so let's hear it, Dichtus urged, regarding me with his chestnut eyes surrounded by a net of wrinkles formed by laughter as well as gazing against the sun and glittering waves.  
- Can I please have some dry clothes first, and something to eat, I asked.  
- Certainly! I'll have my men bring some food, and some excuse for clothes. Unfortunately it has to be men's trousers and skirt, we have no woman clothes aboard.

I started to laugh:  
- Oh, as if that would matter after all I have been trough! Now, Dichtus, if you wanna hear my story, be prepared that it's not a nice one. There's a terrible reason for me and my son to be out here.

Dichtus and his crew were from Seriphos, a tiny little island far out in the sea, and he turned out to be steady and jovial and most of all a wonderful and generous soul. He gave me and little Perseus a home in his house, a safe haven.

- I have no family of my own, my wife died giving birth several years ago, as did the child. I have been alone since then. But last year I started to have dreams. Dreams of a beautiful woman who would be coming to me from across the sea and give me a new family. And you have her face. You're welcome to stay with your son, perhaps he can be the fisherman who will take over my boat given time.  
- You're too kind.  
- No, Danae. I feel that this is a sign. That the gods have given me the chance to have a family again.

For the first night in a long time I slept in a safe bed in a safe house where I finally was free, my little son sleeping beside of me. And in the middle of the night something woke me up. A sound from the open window. I went up, peaked outside, more curious than scared. And there he was - Starman, sitting on that funny pine which grew almost horizontally, the moon shining off his beautiful locks.

- Hi! I said.  
- Good evening, honey! I see that my little Danae has finally found her way home.  
- You think so? I was still not certain about Dichtus. He seemed too good to be true.  
- I know it. He is the man in whose ears I've been whispering dreams at night. He is the man to take care of you and our son, give him a safe and healthy upbringing and you new love. But I have come to say farewell to you. This will be the last time you'll see me this way.

- I... please don't go! I need you...  
- Not anymore. As I said, you have come home.  
- Just one more thing then?  
- What?  
- Your name, your real name. I really wanna know who you are, who's the father to my child.  
- I'm Zeus.

- You mean - THE Zeus.  
- Yes I am - THE Zeus, he smiled. Now you know why I cannot stay. I have a wife at Olympos who I love very much in spite of sometimes not being able to restrain myself. But don't worry, you will be fine from now on. Dichtus is of your own kind, he will love you and care for you the way I would never be able to. Farewell Danae.

Then he was gone, the only thing outside my window that funny pine and the sea which patted the sandy beach with slow, soft and foamy breakers.

**Part 3 - haven**

I'm watching Perseus playing with his brother by the creek, listening to their laughter as their toy boats keep tipping over. Perseus is tall for his age, blond with a reddish tint to his hair and he has his father's blue eyes and wonderful smile. And when I see him like this I know he is gonna grow up to become something great. His name is gonna be remembered.

And I hope Zeus, his father, will keep an eye upon him when he goes out in the world to do what he is meant to do. I know now that there was a reason for all this ordeal I was put through. I was at the wrong place, my home was not the place for a hero to grow up in. It had become too civilised, too decadent, people had become comfortable and cruel, and the warmness and love had faded away. Zeus had brought me to a place where these things still existed, and where I as well as our son could benefit from it.


End file.
